Tshwane: Employee verification process saved city R2m
The City of Tshwane’s MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, Kingsley Wakelin, says the city’s employee verification process managed to shave off R2 million from its monthly salary bill.
The cash-strapped city has conducted a full verification of all its 20 646 employees and Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) participants to eliminate any potential ghost employees.
Wakelin said on Thursday the process achieved a 99.8% success rate, verifying 20 602 employees, including those on suspension.
A separate verification of EPWP participants took place, which confirmed 763 individuals (95.8%).
A total of 496 EPWP participants could not be verified.
Wakelin said the verification process was done to prevent possible adverse audit findings and to demonstrate accountability to residents.
"Following the successful completion of this process, the city has frozen salary and stipend payments totalling over R2 million per month. The verification process took place over a two-month period and required permanent and fixed-term contract employees to present themselves physically with proof of identity.
"As part of our control measures, heads of department will continue to sign off on salary bills each month, and the city intends to conduct employee and EPWP participant verification on an annual basis."
The Auditor General recently officially tabled a damning report into the City of Tshwane’s financials, confirming over R10 billion in irregular expenditure.
The report focused on the 2021/2022 financial year.
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